Viktor Posuvalyuk, Russian President Boris Yeltsin's special envoy to Iraq, is scheduled to return to Moscow today from his two-day visit to Amman, where he held talks with Jordan's foreign minister. Arriving in Jordan on March 4, Posuvalyuk emphasized that Russia is continuing its efforts... MORE

Boris Brevnov, the 29-year-old president of Russia's UES energy monopoly and ally of First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, seems to have strengthened his position in the run-up to the company's general stockholders' meeting next month. In so doing, however, Brevnov questioned the propriety of... MORE

Balakovo, the second largest town in Saratov Oblast, made history yesterday when it held Russia's first land auction. (RTR, March 5) Saratov was the first region in Russia to legalize the free sale of land. Other regions, including neighboring Samara Oblast, Tatarstan and Kurgan Oblast... MORE

Military authorities in Moscow went out hunting for deserters at the end of January. They called the special operation "Fugitive." This month, they are trying a more gentle approach. The new operation -- "Deserter, Give Yourself Up" -- includes a promise of clemency. Eighty-three deserters... MORE

Ukraine's presidential office announced yesterday that top Russian, Ukrainian and Moldovan leaders have agreed to confer on March 27 in Odessa on the political settlement of the Transdniester conflict. Presidents Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine and Petru Lucinschi of Moldova, Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, the... MORE

Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov on March 4 denounced as "repulsive" and "scandalous" the Latvian police measure to disperse a demonstration by "Russian-speaking pensioners and women" in downtown Riga. Expressing the "Russian Foreign Ministry's indignation" during a news conference, Primakov charged that the incident "typified... MORE

The Russian government has reportedly reopened the investigation into the crash of a military An-124 "Ruslan" transport in Irkutsk last December in which sixty-nine people lost their lives. Last month an investigating commission had blamed the accident on the plane's engines-built by the Motor-Sich company... MORE

Ingushetia's President Ruslan Aushev says there are plans for the presidents of Russia's North Caucasus republics to meet in Grozny shortly with Chechnya's President Aslan Maskhadov. Aushev was speaking after meeting with Maskhadov himself. The North Caucasus leaders intend to discuss ways of building trust... MORE

The chief of Russia's domestic counter-intelligence service -- and the main successor to the Soviet era KGB -- claimed yesterday that his agency had caught twenty-nine foreign agents last year while exposing some 400 foreign intelligence officers. Nikolai Kovalev, director of the Federal Security Service... MORE

Russian Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov said yesterday that his party is negotiating with its nationalist and agrarian allies to form a shadow government. He predicted that the team would include regional governors Nikolai Kondratenko of Krasnodar Krai, Vasily Starodubtsev of Tula Oblast and Aman... MORE